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Shrine to Conservation

Last Saturday, I went down to Woodstock for the 10th anniversary celebration of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. The event was also the unveiling of their new Forest Center, a classroom and meeting space made almost entirely from wood harvested on the Park’s 555-acre woodlands. If that last statement raised an eyebrow for you, let me assure you that it’s true. Unlike every other National Park in the nation, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller practices active forest management.

Why would they be harvesting timber from a National Park? Mostly because this national park is the oldest continuously managed forest in America. Forest management began just after the Civil War under the auspices of former owner George Perkins Marsh, author of the seminal environmental text, Man and Nature. His work was continued by Frederick Billings, and subsequently by Billings’ granddaughter Mary and her husband, Laurance Rockefeller. When the forest and mansion was given to the United States by the Rockefellers, the mandate was to continue the long-term forest management.

With its century and a half of stewardship behind it, it is a shrine to conservation. Stewardship and conservation of this sort are near and dear to the mission of Northern Woodlands. We are happy to acknowledge there are plenty of places that are fragile and should be off-limits to extractive human activity. Those reserves are important, but we are particularly interested in helping people learn how best to steward the land that can and should be productive. This is also one of the missions of MBR.

The Forest Center is the first National Park Service structure to be built entirely with FSC-certified wood. The harvesting was done by Long View Forest Contracting of Charlestown, New Hampshire, and coordinated by Redstart Forestry of Corinth, Vermont. All framing and interior wood used in the Forest Center, including white pine, ash, black cherry, hemlock and red oak, came from the park’s forest. Not just the harvesting, but the construction of the building was accomplished according to the highest standards. The building is being considered for Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

We expect to cover the management of this historic forest in a future article in Northern Woodlands magazine. Until then, I hope this blog piques the interest of anyone interested in the history of forest as practiced in the Northeast.

In reflecting on the legacy of which he is such a vital part, Laurance Rockefeller said, “The true importance of Marsh, Billings, and those who follow in their footsteps goes beyond simple stewardship. Their work transcends maintenance. It involves new thought and new action to enhance and enrich…the past. …We cannot rest on the achievements of the past. Rather, each generation must not only be stewards, but activists, innovators, and enrichers.”

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